Tuesday, February 7, 2012

[Live Report] De Sades, This Is Nowhere @ Larissa, 27/01/2012

This Is Nowhere and De Sades, given the chance by their common upcoming release, a 10" split which is expected in about a month, gave two shows in Larissa and Thessaloniki on 27 and 28 of January. Although I live in Thessaloniki, I was working on Saturday so I grabbed the chance to catch them in Larissa. After all, it wasn't a show to be missed...

It was my first time in Larissa's Stage Club. We are talking about a cozy, live-friendly stage. As always my main concern when it comes to a live stage was the quality of the sound. Well luckily all check, no problems there. I have to say though that maybe the stage itself is a little too high and as it seems I wasn’t the only one who thought it so. That’s a little bit of a turn-off for the interaction between the band and the crowd. No matter what my my concerns were, the chemistry turned out to be superb!

The last time I had the chance to enjoy This Is Nowhere live was over a year ago (damn you military services...). I was informed though about some changes in their original sound so I was both curious and eager to "meet" them again. I have seen them 4 or 5 times in the past and I feel that every performance is better than the last one, so it came natural when they once again fulfilled my expectations on that Friday night. Sure the psychedelia was still present but this time embraced (and enriched) by a lot of desert touches. Their -let's say- new musical identity follows a heavier route leading into a desert, dirty 'n' bluesy-psychedelic destination. I was amazed by the perfectly flowing playlist. They intentionally left out their more low-tuned, slow driven tracks in order to achieve one "of the same race" performance with De Sades.

And hell they made the right choice! Only a heavy playlist would match the dirty no-brakes garage rock De Sades gave us. This Is Nowhere charmed us with their desert trips, dusting our minds like only desert rock does and screwing with the back of our necks but De Sades turned Stage into a furious garage party, making the rest of our body follow our warmed up scruffs. The band leaded by their charismatic frontman\showman, Nikos, welcomed us to their punk-garage fiesta. I ended up actually pissed off at myself for having seen them just once.

Well, as they say time flies by when you're having fun, although I suspect that none of us would mind a 5-hour show.. Even after De Sades left the stage, people remained in "Stage"(see what I did here...) and the dj managed to keep us warmed up for 15-20 minutes more until This Is Sades or De Nowhere if you may, went up on stage for a little more pleasure. This time the members of the two bands mixed up all together giving us a fine encore, playing two covers: The first one was "I Want You" by The Troggs with a refined essence of Spacemen 3 "Loosing Touch" and the second one was "For The Love Of Ivy" by Gun Glub.

For once more they showed us on stage that they are indeed a great musicians' collective (Hands In Sand collective) who have common roots, share common sensitivities and above all endless passion for what they're doing. Each and one of them gave the best they had to offer us that night and for that we are honestly thankful to them!